Digital advertising and marketing: only the best ideas worldwide, since 2003

R/GA, the interactive agency that works for Purina (a pet food producer), has created a tv spot to promote its new Web site for pet owners. As explained on AdWeek, this is the first time that R/GA produces a tv spot since 1999. For Nestle Purina, it has created Web sites for Nestle Purina brands including Cat Chow, Purina One and Tidy Cats.

German research firm Soreon has recently release the report “From SMS to Video: Growing Mobile Data Applications” dedicated to the wireless market in Germany. As explained in the press release by Steffen Binder, research director at Soreon:

“While SMS and ring tones have been around for years as Cash-Cows for network operators rapid growth of GPRS-services (E-Mail, MMS) and premium applications like chat, sports and adult content over the last 12 months gave an extra boost to the data revenue growth.”

SMS, ring tones and similar services will generate this year more than 3.7 bn � in Germany.

A new fashion is coming to Europe: the ringback tone. The service, that has been very popular in South Korea, could be available by mid-2004. As Bbc News reports, the service lets you choose what the person calling you hears when phoning.
A new interesting business is born…

McDonald’s Italia will launch next week a series of promotion connected to the movie “Finding Nemo”. Buying a McMenu and a soft drink, customers will be able to scratch the glass and find a code. The code has to be texted to a McD number, if it’s a winning one, than entrant will receive a prize, a Nokia 3200 phone. As explains Pubblicit�Italia there will also be a competition for kids to win Finding Nemo characters toys.

After successful tests with a small group of advertisers, the IAB determined that the new larger ad sizes enhanced impact and response and facilitated more attractive creatives. This is stated in a press release by Real Media Europe, a division of 24/7 Real Media, dispatched through Yahoo! News.
But is it really like this, I mean, the bigger the better? I’m not so sure. Sometimes I feel like the IAB provides the industry with guidelines and suggestions that don’t really fit in the reality, but just the big portals’ needs.
Online advertising is not only about size, it’s about context, relevance, timing and quality of the content. Let’s try not to forget it.

I’m back from London where I attended the Forrester Consumer Forum about to “Driving Integrated Marketing Excellence” (that’s why I haven’t updated this blog lately). I’ll be posting soon about it, keep tuned…

Pubblicit�Italia reports today of an interesting marketing initiative by MTV in co-operation with Sisal, the Italian Company which conducts the National weekly lottery. MTV viewers will be able to join a competition by describing online their dreams. In order to enter users should have a valid lotto ticket. The more the tickets, the more the dreams to submit.
The prize?
The best nine dreams will become true…

At New York Festivals’ 2003 International Interactive Awards the winners have been: Nike, Volvo and Hugo Boss. AdWeek features the competition results giving a few more details about the winning campaigns.

The movie industry is using more and more online ads to promote upcoming films. In particular, rich media ads, have been used by Tarantino & C. to promote Kill Bill. iMediaConnection talks about Kill Bill rich media ads today. It’s funny to see that on the same page the Web site has displayed an ad to “meet Bill“… is he the same person to “kill”? Here’s the screenshot.

“Live in Your World. Play in Ours.(TM)”
This is Sony message to engage more and more people with PlayStation 2. In a press release on Yahoo! News the Japanese giant explains its strategy for a Christmas marketing push: there will be a massive investment in advertising on Tv, cinema, print and outdoor, as well as online. The online advertising will run across broad-reaching sites such as entertainment, gift-giving and kids destinations.